Leading Healthy Indigenous Lives: Analysing the School to Prison to Hospital Pipeline
Of the 17 Closing the Gap Targets, 14 are directly related to either:
- Health and Wellbeing
- Education
- Economies
- Justice
Yet their treatment as discrete targets detracts from their interdependence and how to approach Indigenous inequality as the complex problem that it is.
Incarceration rates, educational qualification attainment percentages, and healthy birthweights, for example, are specifically outlined in at least three of the 17 discrete Closing the Gap Targets. It is clear that they and many others are all dependent on each other and will likely not be individually achieved unless addressed using more intricate methodologies.
In bringing together Indigenous scholars from different disciplinary backgrounds, the panel looks to the future innovation in Indigenous social inequality research by outlining a relational and transdisciplinary approach required to analyse and address what we refer to as the ‘School to Prison to Hospital Pipeline’. The panel will also address the complicated issue and expectation that Indigenous peoples deserve to lead healthy and prosperous lives. The panel also has a focus on masculinity in relation to incarceration and health.
Overview:
8:30am Registration with tea/coffee and breakfast refreshments
9:00am Event Commences
11:00am Networking over light lunch
12:00pm Event Concludes
Speakers
Prof Brendan Hokowhitu is Ngāti Pūkenga (Māori) from Aotearoa and is Professor of Indigenous Research in the Office of the Pro-Vice-Chancellor Indigenous Engagement. Uniquely, Professor Hokowhitu has been a Dean of Indigenous Studies Faculties in two different countries, Canada and Aotearoa. Professor Hokowhitu is recognised as one of the leading Indigenous Studies theorists and is widely published in the areas of critical Indigenous Studies, masculinities, health, sport and film, including being lead Editor of the recently published (2021) Routledge Handbook of Critical Indigenous Studies. He is also lead editor in two edited collections and has 75 peer-reviewed journal Articles and Book Chapters. In 2021/22 he served as President of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association, the largest word-wide scholarly Indigenous Studies association.
Professor James Ward is a Pitjantjatjara and Nukunu man, an infectious diseases epidemiologist and a national leader in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander research. He is currently the Director of the Poche Centre for Indigenous Health at The University of Queensland. Holding various roles over the last 25 years in Aboriginal public health policy for both government and non-government organisations, in urban regional and remote communities he has built a national program of research in the epidemiology and prevention of infectious diseases, with a particular focus on STIs, HIV and viral hepatitis in Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. Professor Ward has previously worked at the Kirby Institute, University of New South Wales, Baker IDI in Alice Springs and the South Australian Health and Medical Research Institute. He has served on numerous national and international committees including currently the Communicable Diseases Network of Australia, the Australian National Council on Alcohol and Drugs, the CDNA COVID-19 Working Group and the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander COVID-19 Taskforce. He has over 120 publications and leads several large-scale public health and infectious diseases studies.
Dr Shea Spierings is a Gaangalu man from Central Queensland. He is a Postdoctoral Research Fellow investigating COVID-19 health messaging in Indigenous communities, health systems, health governance, and Aboriginal men’s health. Dr Spiering’s PhD research utilised both Indigenous and mainstream qualitative conceptual and methodological tools to unpack Aboriginal men’s stories to highlight the complex intersection between the criminalisation of Indigeneity, Aboriginal masculinity, and Aboriginal health. Dr Spierings has previously worked in the Indigenous Community Controlled Health Sector and has served as a Deadly Choices Ambassador. He is currently a Non-Executive Director for the Sunshine Coast Health Network. In 2015 he was appointed by the Australian Government to serve as the Australian Youth Delegate to the United Nations (UN). Before becoming the Australian Youth Delegate to the UN, Dr Spierings worked in various policy and community development roles, and in the construction industry.
Dr. Mitchell Rom is a postdoctoral researcher interested in Decolonial studies, Education and Health. He earned his doctorate from UQ which focused on the key learning, teaching and policy (APST 1.4 and 2.4) challenges situated in the contemporary Indigenous Australian education space at university. Mitchell initially trained as a secondary school teacher in the disciplines of English and History in Queensland and studied Education for over a decade. During this time, Dr Rom also taught at university, published and worked across various levels of education. As a Quandamooka researcher, he is interested in discussing social matters with like-minded scholars for positive community change. Dr Rom is an advocate of strength-based thinking and decoloniality.
Who should attend
Anyone interested in Indigenous social inequality or Indigenous health and prosperity.
Venue
In-person
The River Room, Customs House
399 Queen St,
Brisbane CBD, 4000